Welcome to Beating Benzos

Thank you for visiting Beating Benzos. This site was created to provide information, help and encouragement for those who have been prescribed benzodiazepine drugs and are in the process
of tapering from these or have already withdrawn. Please read My Drug History for full details of the drugs I was prescribed over the years 1972 to 2012.

I started
my journey on Nitrazepam, a benzodiazepine prescribed by my doctor for sleep problems, forty years ago. This is my story and how I am slowly conquering an intense and difficult withdrawal.

My passage through those
years is told in My Story. Extracts from my daily journals are also included. Blog pages 1 to 9 form my on going recovery journey from April 2014, seventeen months after I stopped the drug
(when I finally felt well enough to write) to the present day. Please use the Blog Index to directly access the older posts you would like to read. I continue to write blog posts to this day, April
2020, but now these mostly follow advice and support for those still suffering this iatrogenic illness. You will also see that over the years I have many times announced my full recovery only to be plunged back down into the hell a few days or weeks later.
It's a haphazard process, with many twists and turns until the brain gets it right. Healing from Benzos is not linear but more of a roller coaster ride.

I've therefore experienced a long and difficult recovery with
numerous symptoms and total destruction of my previous life. It has also been protracted, which a few do suffer, and I still have some problems to this day although I consider myself healed from the brain and body damage caused by benzos. Anything I'm left
with now could be age related but impossible to tell.

I hope the pages contained here will provide everyone with belief and inspiration that this difficult journey does eventually end however long it may take. Always remember
many thousands have travelled this road before you and recovered. Benzo withdrawal ends in the time that is right for you.

You are welcome to join the Facebook group
linked to Beating Benzos. The group is private so please log into Facebook with your account and request permission to join. When accepted into the group please write a brief history of your own experiences with benzodiazepine drugs so you can be welcomed.

The aim of Beating Benzos is not only to provide information on withdrawal problems through my own experiences but also to demonstrate practices that helped me along the way. Whether you are still taking these drugs, tapering off them or suffering from their withdrawal, I hope you will find some support here. Kind Regards,

Rosalind

Biography

I am now 74 years old and have been suffering benzo withdrawal symptoms for the last eight years during my development of tolerance to the drugs and eventually stopping them in November 2012. I'm an educationalist and for the years previous to my
retirement in 2003 I ran my own small, private school. I now wish to help others as much as I can because so little is recognised or understood by doctors and psychiatrists. The only real support I have received is from people suffering in the same way or
from those who have endured the process and made it through.

Recovery Blogs

My story continues up to the present day on Blog Posts/9. It's being told just as it is for me but please remember everybody's pattern of symptoms is different.
At this stage over seven years off benzos I consider myself recovered and very much better with no other serious health problems. Blog posts are therefore mostly for information now as I continue to be careful and keep as stress free as I can. Recovery is
great so please read the Inspirational Words. Any questions on any post you are welcome to ask on my Facebook group Beating Benzos.

i have now added a new Facebook group Beating Benzos UK for more localised support for everybody who resides in the UK and Ireland. (for the moment this has been archived but will reopen in the future).